God used Gifford Ramsey—with his high-pitched voice, broad shoulders, and big smile—to spur many youngsters and adults to faith. “You say you’re a Christian, then show me—I’m from Missouri, the Show Me state,” he would say. He was my youth …Read More

Bill Watterson, creator of the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, said he starts the creative process by holding a blank sheet of paper, staring into space, and letting his mind wander. Most teachers know the feeling, and have tried this …Read More

I stumbled onto Reformed theology as a bleary-eyed new mom. During an inductive study of the book of romans, I began to detect that I had been quite a bit more dead in my sins than the church of my …Read More

A case could be made that what separates Reformed believers from the rest of the evangelical church is less the competing doctrinal perspectives of Calvinism versus Arminianism and more the competing perspectives on the value of doctrine. That is, we …Read More

Back before electronic calendars and smartphones, many of us used something called a Day-Timer. I got my first professional Day-Timer when I joined the staff of a church at nineteen years old. And though I haven’t used a Day-Timer in …Read More

Like many people, I can only handle a relatively small amount of information at a time. I remember as a youth when my father tried to teach me to play golf. Fourteen different instructions bombarded my adolescent brain—knees slightly bent, …Read More

One of the first things we learn about work is that we are to regularly stop doing it (Gen. 2:1-3). The creation account of Genesis 1 culminates in the Lord’s setting aside His creative labors in order to rest. That …Read More

It doesn’t happen often, but it had happened. A book written for businessmen had jumped the fence and become something of a universal best seller. Like The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People before it, and Good to Great after …Read More

Seldom in an assigned writing project is the author given an opportunity to address a theme that permeates Scripture, that is pervasive in both the Old and New Testament. But in this instance, my assignment provides for that and more, …Read More

Early in my ministry, I served as a youth pastor, and like every other evangelical youth minister, I received all the advertisements from youth ministry curriculum-hawkers telling me how I could be “relevant” to “today’s teenagers.” The advertisements promised me …Read More